Five more ways to double your business

Probably the two most under-utilised strategies in selling are the up-sell and add-on sell techniques.  The excuse often given when I suggest it to some business owners is the desire to remain non-threatening to the customer – and that really is just an excuse.  There are many ways to apply those strategies without offending your customer.  McDonalds do it every day with their suggestions for combos when really all you want to do is buy a burger.  You see it often in hotels where spirits are sold as double nips only unless requested.  Travel agents do it by offering travel insurance.  Shoe shops offer a second pair at half price – and the list goes on.

The point is that nobody is going to buy unless they really want something.  The up-sell and add-on strategies merely suggest to the buyer that maybe they require something additional or something of more value which would better suit their purpose.  And it is far better that they buy it from you than realise that they need it later and then buy somewhere else.  So don’t shy away from the idea, have a look at what you are selling and how you can increase the $ value per customer by applying some of these techniques.

• Design yourself a check list.  e.g.: if somebody wants to buy a can of paint, while the paint is being mixed you could easily give them a check list to examine, which contains things like brush, turps, cleaning gear, roller etc, etc.
• Categorise your products into groups so that it is easily identifiable to your sales team where customers could be up-sold or suggested an incremental sale.
• Ensure your sales team is familiar with the additional benefits provided by a more expensive item.  After all a customer is not going to pay more unless they see some additional advantage – and your staff need to become skilled in selling those benefits. 
• Think of an incentive to encourage the customer to spend more.  I remember one shop where there were many suggestions posted on the walls which offered free products at different levels of spend.
• Develop some cross-selling relationships.  This is easily set up between non competing businesses to encourage customers to use a complimentary service. One of the simplest examples is a plumber and an electrician working together and offering some kind of deal to use the other’s services.

So there are five easy techniques that could be used in any business.  There are many more if you put your mind to it and I would be happy to sit down with any of you to help you identify where these ideas could be applied to your business.